hundred words on a very pleasant novel called, for instance, "Roast
Beef, Medium"; in the afternoon, three-quarters of a column on a
"History of the American Negro"; winding up the day, perhaps, with a
lively article about a popular book on "Submarine Diving and Light
Houses"; and taking home at night the "Note Books of Samuel Butler." I
began the morrow, very likely, with an "omnibus article" lumping
together five books on the Panama Canal. And then, as the publishers
of the latest book on art had turned in a double-column
hundred-agate-line "ad" the week before, it was necessary to do
something serious "for" that masterpiece. I reviewed a dictionary and
a couple of cookery books. At the holiday season I polished off a
jumble of Christmas and New Year's cards, a pile of picture calendars,
and a table full of "juveniles." Woman suffrage, alcoholism, New
Thought, socialism, minor poetry, big game hunting, militarism,
athletics, architecture, eugenics, industry, European travel,
education, eroticism, red blood fiction, humour, uplift books, white
slavery, nature study, aviation, bygone kings (and their mistresses),
statesmen, scientists, poverty, disease, and crime, I had always with
me. I became a slightly bald reviewer.

Books of theology and of philosophy were given out to a theologian;
books concerning the dramatic art were done by the dramatic critic; and
those on music went to the music critic. We had an occasional letter
from Paris on current French literature.

In addition to writing (for I was an editor), I read the "literary"
galley proofs; "made up" once a week down in the composing room late at
night; compiled the feature variously called in different papers _Books
Received_, _Books of the Week_, or _The Newest Books_; and got out the
correspondence of the literary department--with publishers and with